Mets vs. Cardinals Recap: Cardinal rule

With the season past the brink and Wild Card hopes also rapidly dwindling, the Mets marched Rafael Montero to the mound for the second game of their series against the Cardinals. Montero, the man of a thousand chances, made another start in a season that once promised him very little, if any, time in the big leagues. The result was a 5-0 loss to the Cardinals.

Things started as well as you could expect from Montero, with a Matt Carpenter leadoff double. Tommy Pham then reached base on a throwing error from T.J. Rivera, and promptly stole second. Jedd Gyorko hit a sacrifice fly to bring home the first Cardinals run. Montero coaxed a ground out from Yadier Molina to limit the damage and end the inning.

In the second, a double from new Met-killer Paul DeJong and a pair of singles from Kolten Wong and Magneuris Sierra loaded the bases. Opposing pitcher Michael Wacha collected a force-out RBI, and Matt Carpenter hit yet another double, plating Wong. Tommy Phamreached on another fielding error from T.J. Rivera, plating Wacha.

Sense a pattern here?

Defensive miscues, the likes of which might at least be lessened by a young prospect in Las Vegas, continued to be the theme of the night. A throw from Rene Rivera to catch Gyorko stealing second was overturned when challenged. Montero hit Wong with a pitch, putting runners on first and second before getting another force out from Sierra.

To his credit, Montero did seem to settle in after the second inning, going six total while striking out five and walking one. Fernando Salas entered in relief during the seventh and allowed the final Cardinals run, a line drive single from Yadier Molina that plated Tommy Pham.

Cardinals pitcher Michael Wacha was outstanding, pitching his first major league complete game. He struck out eight batters and only allowed one walk.

The Mets’ bats were about as ineffective as their pitching staff, only collecting three hits on the evening. Rule of thumb: any game where you have the same number of hits as errors is probably not going to go your way. Michael Conforto did attempt to make things interesting in the ninth inning, hitting a single and working his way over to third on a wild pitch and ground out, but his efforts fell short when Wacha struck out Jay Bruce to end the game.

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Win Probability Added

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What’s WPA?

Big winners: Matt Carpenter +15.0% WPA
Big losers: Rafael Montero -22.9% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Asdrubal Cabrera fourth inning walk +3.2%
Teh sux0rest play: Jay Bruce ninth inning strike out -.2%
Total pitcher WPA: -24.4%
Total batter WPA: -25.6%
GWRBI!: Yadier Molina seventh inning single